Due to enhancements in communications and travel, such as email, mobile phones, and air travel, today's businesses are not as confined by geographic bounds when compared to the recent past. For example, many years ago business could only be undertaken in a town or city within which the business physically resided. Thus, for example, a blacksmith servicing New York could not provide services to Los Angeles. As time passed and shipping became more expedient and reliable, businesses were able to expand the geographic region with respect to which they could provide goods and/or services. Today, email, text messaging, and the like enable data to be communicated nearly instantaneously between individuals for minimal cost (e.g., for the cost of Internet access). Additionally, expedited shipping enables products to be provided between continents in a matter of mere days. Therefore, even small businesses are capable of becoming international operations, providing goods and/or services to people or businesses in several different countries.
These enhancements in communication have also enabled companies to have several branches in various countries. For instance, a company may have a branch in the United States, a branch in Germany, a branch in Mexico, and a branch in Japan. Therefore, a business providing goods and/or services (such as software and software support) to such company must be capable of providing the goods and services in multiple languages. Continuing with the above example, a business that desires to provide software to the aforementioned company must provide such software in English, German, Spanish, and Japanese to ensure that employees of the company can utilize the software.
Conventionally, multiple software packages are developed, such that each software package supports a particular language. With more particularity (and in accordance with the above example), a software package would be created that includes fonts associated with the English language, a software package would be created that includes fonts associated with the German language, and so on. Fonts that support particular languages within a software package can require a significant amount of storage space (e.g., multiple megabytes), thus rendering electronic transmittal of the software inefficient. Moreover, often products are pre-loaded with software prior to sale, and incorrect delivery of the product can result in a recipient thereof not being able to correctly utilize such product.